Justin Bieber’s comment in the Anne Frank House guestbook has drawn condemnation for seeming to make light of the young girl’s tragic story, when other visitors’ messages pay solemn tribute to her memory.

This week on “National Geographic Weekend,” join host Boyd Matson as we kayak down 80 foot waterfalls in New Zealand, ride across the Red Sea to the Arabian Peninsula, race across the world’s deserts, follow our pets around the neighborhood, build floating cities, circumnavigate the world under human power, spy on the Soviet Union, decode the Nazi Enigma machine, and survive an attack from Norway’s arctic terns.

A video prepared by Çankaya University in Ankara gives the historical background to the letter. According to the narrative (in Turkish) in 1949 Einstein meets a young foreign student, Münir Ülgür, at Princeton. When he learns that Ülgür is a student from Turkey, he shows visible excitement, “Do you know,” he says, “…your nation…

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Pristine Seas: Seychelles LaunchesThe National Geographic Pristine Seas team is out exploring the waters of the Seychelles, an archipelago just north of Madagascar, to study and film the incredible abundance and diversity of marine life there. (Photo by Manu San Félix)

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